'The industry is becoming more data centric'

What's your name?

Emma Hayes

What’s your current job?

Managing Director/ Senior BIM Consultant with Digital Built Consultants. I also lecture part-time on the MSc BIM Management, Middlesex University/ MSc Applied BIM Management, TU Dublin and Construction Management Post-grad, IT Carlow.

How long have you held the position?

We launched Digital Built Consultants in March 2018; I’ve been Managing Director since we launched.

Can you describe your daily work routine?

As the Managing Director I am responsible for the day to day business administration of Digital Built Consultants along with business development. As a Senior BIM Consultant, I am responsible for working with our clients to develop BIM adoption strategies aligned to their business goals, supporting the roll out of implementation roadmaps with protocols and procedures along with comprehensive training plans. I prepare in house BIM standards for our clients and BIM Execution strategies and plans for projects.

What is your professional background?

I have over 20 years’ experience in the AEC industry in Ireland and internationally. I am a Chartered Architectural Technologist and hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Architectural Technology from Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), and a Master’s Degree in BIM Management from Middlesex University.

Previously, I was the Group BIM Manager for a large multi-disciplined AEC and Project Management organisation. I was responsible for the development and implementation of the Group BIM strategy and roll-out of procedures and workflows for BIM adoption across the organisation’s network of offices in Europe, Asia and the US. I have executed BIM on a number of high-value complex projects in the pharma, food, energy and mission-critical sectors. I also have extensive experience delivering residential, retail and commercial projects. Since launching Digital Built Consultants, I have worked with many clients as their adviser and representative for BIM projects and have worked with several architectural, engineering consultants and contractors to develop their BIM capability.

Tell me about yourself away from work?

I am very passionate about the Digital Transition of the Irish Construction industry. I am very active in driving progress in BIM adoption through my extracurricular involvement in organisations such as Construction IT Alliance as a non-executive director on the board of management, Women in BIM as the regional lead for Ireland and also as a judge for the Irish Construction Excellence Awards.

When I’m not working on BIM adoption, I enjoy training and competing with my horses at Dressage Ireland shows. I am very lucky to live in the countryside with my husband and menagerie of horses, dogs, cats and hens where I can truly unwind and enjoy the good life!

Tell us something very few people know about you?

I like to push myself out of my comfort zone and recently starting playing polo at Bishopland Polo in Ballymore Eustace. It is a fantastic opportunity to be coached by a professional polo player with talented polo ponies. It is such as skilful and strategic team sport, I have a lot to learn but I am hooked!

You are speaking at the forthcoming 2019 DigiCon Summit in Croke Park, Dublin. What is the focus of your talk?

I am part of a panel discussion about assessing the readiness of the sector to embrace the “Digital Transition” of Ireland’s construction industry. I’m looking forward to sharing my experience as a BIM Consultant working with clients from the industry currently and giving some insights into where the sector is now, where is needs to be and what impact the Internet of Things and Big Data is having on the industry.

What in your opinion are the key obstacles for innovation in the sector?

One of the main obstacles for innovation in the sector at the moment is the lack of skilled resources. It is very difficult to innovate if you cannot attract and retain new people to the industry who will bring fresh thinking and original ideas. A changing industry has led to new roles within the construction industry dedicated to managing innovation. We hope that these emerging roles will attract new and diverse talent to the industry and encourage innovation.

How do you see the industry being changed by digital disruption over the coming decade?

The industry is becoming more data centric and building owners and developers are starting to realise the value of data which is developed during the design and construction stages. This data can be used for asset and facility management. Over the coming decade building owners will have access to Digital Twins of their building and infrastructure assets. The data generated from this process is stored in cloud

databases which gives us, the project stakeholders, access to a vast amount of information about our projects such as cost, schedule and constructability. In the future this data will be mined and analysed by artificial intelligence to allow the industry to make informed decisions about future projects.

Emma Hayes will be speaking at the Digital Construction Summit on June 13th in Croke Park. To buy tickets for this event visitdigitalconstruction.ie